CCI lad Pandole, who lost to Khar Gymkhana’s Jay Vaknalli in straight sets at the recently concluded Maharashtra State Junior Open at Bombay Gymkhana, upset the top seed 11-7, 12-10, 11-8 in a tight championship round. Favourite Vaknalli battled hard to keep his hopes alive and ran Pandole close in all sets.

Last year’s runner-up Fadte overcame second seed Advait Adik of Otters Club, Mumbai 11-7, 12-10, 6-11, 11-2 in an exciting championship round to avenge his defeat at the Maharashtra State Open where he lost to Adik in the final after leading 5-0 and reaching match point at 10-7 in the decider.

Hong Kong Open winner Fadte’s path to victory at Willingdon was far from smooth as he endured a stiff challenge from Adik in the first two sets. The second stretched into extra points, and Fadte dropped the third. But he dominated the crucial fourth set by surging to a substantial lead with winners that denied Adik a chance of a recovery

Maharashtra Open semi-finalist and second seed Jui Kalgutkar of Chembur also upset arch-rival and top seed Aishwarya Bhattacharya 3-1 in an all-Bombay Gymkhana final for the girls’ under-15 crown, while top seed Urvashi Joshi of Jindal survived a late challenge before defeating second seed Vishruti Sani of Delhi for the under-19 title.

Tamil Nadu Club’s players experienced mixed fortunes with favourite Velavan Senthilkumar winning the boys under-15 title, while second seed Deepak Mishra went down to top seed and India junior No. 1 Mahesh Mangaonkar in the boys under-19 final